rhythm

First coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “any measured flow or movement, symmetry, rhythm”), from ῥέω (rhéō, “I flow, run, stream, gush”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪð.əm/, [ˈɹɪð.m̩]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -ɪðəm
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪθ.əm/

rhythm (countable and uncountable, plural rhythms)

1. The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.

   Dance to the rhythm of the music.

2. A specifically defined pattern of such variation.

   Most dances have a rhythm as distinctive as the Iambic verse in poetry

3. A flow, repetition or regularity.

   Once you get the rhythm of it, the job will become easy.

4. The tempo or speed of a beat, song or repetitive event.

   We walked with a quick, even rhythm.

   • 1872, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poetry and Imagination:

     If you hum or whistle the rhythm of the common English metres,— of the decasyllabic quatrain, or the octosyllabic with alternate sexisyllabic, or other rhythms, […]

   • 1967, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, New York:

     Bigeminous rhythm was followed by bursts of extrasystoles.

5. The musical instruments which provide rhythm (mainly; not or less melody) in a musical ensemble.

   The Baroque term basso continuo is virtually equivalent to rhythm

6. A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.

   The rhythm of the seasons dominates agriculture as well as wildlife

7. Controlled repetition of a phrase, incident or other element as a stylistic figure in literature and other narrative arts; the effect it creates.

   The running gag is a popular rhythm in motion pictures and theater comedy

8. A person's natural feeling for rhythm.

   That girl's got rhythm, watch her dance!

• meter / metre
• prosody
• (instruments providing rhythm) rhythm section

rhythm (third-person singular simple present rhythms, present participle rhythming, simple past and past participle rhythmed)

1. (transitive) To impart a (particular) rhythm to.
   • 1987, Ian Noble, Language and Narration in Céline’s Writings, page 194:

     The pamphlet, writes Muray, 'is the supremely affirmative form in which nothing can be turned around, rhythmed or played with in synonyms and rhymes'.

   • 2017, Robert Hassan, The Age of Distraction:

     And so the microchip, say, reflects a certain electronically driven speed of society, just as the invention of a flint axe, reflected a society that was rhythmed fully by biological and environmental temporalities.

   • 2021, Sónia Pedro Sebastião, ‎Susana de Carvalho Spínola, Diplomacy, Organisations and Citizens, page 316:

     ISP places are, therefore, not only considered places of teaching and learning performances (see point 4): the different locations rhythmed the entire programme.

   • 2024, Marie-Rose Cardat, Why I left my Hometown, page 184:

     rhythmed by a television show and a meal, as we grow older, things change. rhythmed by a baby's cry and school holidays, as we grow older, things change. rhythmed by monthly bills and a husband's envies, as we grow older, some things never change.